A Travel Blog – Traveling the World and Doing Good

Main menu

What Victory Means to Me

“You won’t win until you learn how to lose” – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Following and fulfilling your dreams is not easy. Oftentimes the obstacles and hurdles that lie ahead seem so insurmountable that they hold you back from even trying. Whether it is the fear of failure or anxiety of the unknown we all have our reasons.

I’ve realized over the years that if I do not take risks or step out of my comfort zone than I am miserable. I don’t grow as a person nor do I feel fulfilled or happy. The more I challenge myself both mentally, intellectually and physically, the more peaceful I feel in my own skin.

Although most of my challenges come with travel, I also harbor many personal victories that I try each day to remember. Some are harder than others. Yet the ones I’m most proud of are by far the hardest I’ve ever faced. Postpartum Depression after the birth of my first child eleven years ago, running my first marathon after 9/11, climbing Kilimanjaro, and giving back in the many different ways I do. These personal victories keep me going when the days are dark and cold. When I’m feeling a lack of inspiration (believe me, even someone as optimist as me has my moments of the unexpected, unexplainable blues), I cherish these memories of achievement and success. They keep me going and keep me dreaming.

My most recent victory, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, is special to me in so many ways. First, I proved to myself I could do it. I had dreamed of it for 15 years, set my heart on doing it, and did it. It meant even more to me given my physical injury that I’ve been suffering for over two years now. A tear in my right hip that may need surgery. But I did it, and trained through the pain and fear. Second, I realized that anything is truly possible as long as you set your mind on it. I’m a stay at home mom. Yet at age 43 I could fly alone to Tanzania and climb the highest mountain in Africa with a group of people I’d never met. It showed me that as long as you set your mind to something, anything is possible as long as you never give up.

“Don’t go through life, grow through life” – Eric Butterworth

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom”. – Anais Nin.